Their romance storyline only begins on the second playthrough?

Special CGs that cannot be unlocked in Chapter 1

In Phillips's dungeon, torches flickered, and chains and magical confinement artifacts clanged together.

But soon, a clear, bright, and melodious girl's voice rang out in the blood-soaked, stinking dungeon.

The local songs of Phillips were long and gentle, but the lyrics were altered by a wicked girl.

"The only sheep was skinned, two lambs were tied together and burned alive, screaming in agony, three lambs... their heads were crushed in agony, tears streaming down their faces~ Hmph."

"Oh, Mr. Rod is awake? I hope his screams didn't disturb you?"

The girl shook the blood off the chains and then tossed them to the one-eyed monster beside her.

Even after taking over its master's chains, the one-eyed monster, as the witch's servant, still stared with its bulging eyes, watching over the food, and strode through the corridor with heavy steps, making a thumping sound.

The "Rhodes" the girl mentioned was watching his teammates die in the distance, exhaling slightly, and pondering the current situation with a headache.

Such a gruesome murder would make an ordinary person vomit because they would find it unbearable, but Rod was different.

The familiar little monster.

A familiar scene.

He instantly understood: he had traveled through time.

Moreover, it was at the very beginning of his journey into the game [Elchia], when the character Rhodes he created was imprisoned.

Rod raised his hand, opened his eyes, looked at the ordinary iron chains and handcuffs that had been put on him without any regard for him, and recalled something briefly.

Rhodes, nineteen years old, is the eldest son of a noble family favored by the gods. He is a free character he created in the game, with brown hair and purple eyes, and always wears white ceremonial noble attire—including now.

Just twenty minutes ago, he was attending a viscount's banquet, but in the blink of an eye, all the students at the banquet were captured by the witch who launched a surprise attack and imprisoned in this cage.

The witches of this world are no pushovers; they are all servants of fallen demon gods, monsters who truly live by eating people.

Fortunately, the witches' leader had some interaction with Rhodes when they were students and therefore "deeply loves" him. As a result, she is giving Rhodes the opportunity to join their cannibalistic monster organization.

Unfortunately, Rhodes didn't want to have his flesh and organs bitten off while selling his body... so of course he wouldn't join them, but chose another way to survive.

However, he felt extremely sad when he thought about the other way he had chosen to escape in his previous life.

"Back to this worst possible choice," Rhodes murmured.

The game [Elchia].

This is a fully open Western fantasy world that Rhodes turned into a dating simulation game.

Rhodes is both the most perfect finisher and the most unsuccessful finisher in this game.

In his previous life, at this juncture, he chose to escape the crisis by communicating with the fallen "Star Goddess" Lilith, and envisioned a wonderful start to Lilith's love story.

Therefore, he tried his best to help Lilith and increase her affection level, hoping to reach the maximum affection level to unlock a CG.

In the end, he successfully restored her to her divine status, eliminated the troublemakers, created the dawn and future for humanity, and made her a being second only to the emperor and above millions of others.

But who could have imagined that, just as they had triumphed over everything, and the atmosphere of romance on the altar had reached its peak, and it was also the perfect time for Rhodes to achieve his game objective and for Lilith to express her love?

Lilith stood silently with him on the altar for hours until the ascension to godhood ended, without saying a single word, and then turned and left.

Well, he didn't say a word.

Then the game displayed the words "END" in large letters.

ha?

He came all this way for that special CG at the end, but in the end, the game tells him that Lilith is not a romanceable character.

Why don't you confess to me? That's not how it works in visual novels! I've maxed out your affection level, so you should be with me!

[So, not only are you not with me, and I can't unlock special CGs, but when I try to find new partners, you obstruct me in every way, preventing them from getting close to me. What kind of nonsense is that? I don't agree with this!]

This was Rod's final words when he uninstalled the game.

Therefore, when he returned to the point where he first met Lilith, his mind was naturally focused on a specific goal.

"The goal is clear: kill all the monsters and witches by myself, escape this gathering place of man-eating monsters, and then... ignore Lilith and leave on my own."

That being said, when he turned his gaze, Rhodes' eyes still involuntarily drifted towards the girl in the next cell—

The girl's figure was illuminated by the bright moonlight like a painting. Her petite body supported her crescent-shaped waist, not to mention her long, light blue hair, which made her stand out in this dungeon.

Even so, she remained serene and calm, gazing into the distance as if indifferent to everything, as noble as a deity.

Lilith Ambra.

The god that took him a whole game cycle—two years—to conquer, but turned out to be an unconquerable character.

Just like her long, azure hair, her identity is one of the twelve gods, the [Goddess of Starlight], or simply the [Star Goddess].

Undeniably, Rhodes' feelings upon seeing her again were complex.

He likes her? Definitely not. After all, he's just using her as a target in his dating game.

Ultimately, the hardest thing to let go of is not getting a return on the time spent and realizing that the goal can never be achieved.

"...But there's nothing I can do. In the end, at least I tried and made mistakes. Maybe my wrong choices in the game were actually to avoid her now that I've transmigrated here."

Rhodes felt relieved and prepared to look away.

But strangely enough, in an instant, Lilith's gaze also met Rhodes's.

It was a furtive, timid gaze, like that of a young girl secretly watching her first love.

Lilith even timidly averted her gaze, her ear tips, peeking out from her azure hair, turning slightly red as if she were shy.

This vague sense of bewilderment left Rhodes slightly dazed.

She looked at herself? That's impossible.

But Rhodes's doubts were only momentary, because as Rhodes expected, Lilith quickly reverted to her indifferent demeanor from the first playthrough.

"It's just my imagination." Rhodes also came to his senses and smiled helplessly. "The most important thing is to focus on how to survive tonight. Don't worry about it anymore."

"Feed".

At that moment, a cute, playful, and dissatisfied voice drew Rhodes' attention away.

"Hey, hey, hey, why aren't you responding to me when I greet you?"

Then, the blonde witch Flandre seemed to voice her dissatisfaction at being left out.

But when Rhodes looked at her, Flandre quickly smiled, her eyes crinkling slightly.

She swept aside her witch's robe with her slender arms, tied her long golden hair into a bun, and strode toward Rhodes, who was imprisoned alone in a clean cell.

"I was daydreaming... I didn't disturb you," Rod replied reluctantly to her initial question.

"Haha... I'm glad I didn't disturb you. Well... Mr. Rhodes, now that you've regained consciousness, let's have a good chat. This time, our demon race had a great harvest, capturing quite a lot of human food. That's good news."

"What do you mean?" Rhodes didn't really want to talk to low-level NPCs; it was his gaming habit.

"Huh?"

"I just don't understand your purpose. What's the point of telling me this?"

"Oh, special language? Anyway, as you know, those ordinary students aren't the focus. We're more interested in your presence than that group of food."

As she approached Rhodes, she reached over the iron fence and used her fingers to lift Rhodes' chin:

"Mr. Rhodes, someone like me, a demon, would normally have no right to touch you. This is so exciting!"

"Our boss really, really likes you, so now you only have two choices: either join us, or... die. You understand, right?!"

Upon hearing this, Rhodes's eyes immediately turned strange;

Baby, are you threatening me?

You have already chosen a path to death.